9 of the Best Mid-Size Extended-Range Muff-Style Fuzz Pedals

Controls - Volume, Fuzz, Pre, Tone, High, Clip - Germanium, Asymmetrical Germanium, Silicon, Mosfet, LED and Bypass.

I've had my eye on this one for a while and have owned the compact Son of Pharaoh edition for a good few years now. The aim was always to get this one in eventually - and that happened just this week actually - by way of Joe's Pedals. This ups the ante somewhat with 6 clipping options and 6 controls in place of the four controls of the more standard versions of Pharaoh Fuzz. Essentially a Multi-Clipper Muff Style fuzz - leaning slightly towards Ram's Head voicing, but capable of much more through the different clipping options and controls.

Controls - Sustain, Tone, Level, Mids, Lows.

The disappearance of Steve Painter from the scene and obviously my not receiving my Reticon Flanger from the same is one of the tragedy's of the age. Steve made some exceptionally fine pedals - including this Patriot, possibly the best of that crop. This is a Gilmourish Civil War style Muff Fuzz, but capable of much more with that combination of Tone, Mids and Lows. The M-1 Stacked Ram's Head is also very decent, but not as shapable and versatile as this one. Note that I acquired most of my Buffalo FX pedals from Joe's Pedals - including this one.

Controls - Mids, Tone, Karma (Sustain), Sleep (Volume), Left-Clipping - Germanium/Off/Silicon, Right-Clipping OM (Harmonic Saturation)/Off/Silicon.

This at its core is a fairly smooth Vintage Russian Muff - somewhere between Green and Black varieties. Of Course the dual clipping options and the essential Mids control raise it above that - with some significant genre coverage. Obviously this one's pretty hot on the smoother styles of Muff, but you can rough it up quite a bit too.

Controls - Treble, Bass, Growl (Volume), Cut/Boost (Mids), Mids (Frequency), Mud (Gain), Smooth/Sharp, High/Low (Gain).

The Dead Stag also leans slightly into Ram's Head territory by default, but is capable of far more range courtesy of the extensive tone controls, along with Smooth/Sharp and High/Low Gain Structure options. Oddly enough - this one sounds grand too!

Controls - Volume. Tone, Fuzz, Silicon/LED Clipping, Silicon/Germanium Clipping, Mids, Feedback, Depth, Dual-Footswitches - Engage and Chaos/Feedback.

Lone Wolf Audio's Iron Fist is another I procured from Joe's Pedals, a while back now. There were rumours it was being discontinued, but I don't believe that ever came to pass in fact there is now a V3. Joe Anastasio keeps changing up the format and look - and the newer version has the knobs more in two lines with lower shallow V - versus straight rows. While I believe the guts are largely the same. Earlier editions are missing the central Feedback knob and corresponding second footswitch which is in place on the V2 and V3. This is another that somewhat leans into Ram's Head, while its dual clipping options and tone controls extend its range significantly. This seems to be something of an under-the-radar Muff - but it's another very decent entry for this selection and can get very cunky indeed.

Controls - Treble, Middle, Bass, Low Gain/High Gain/Extreme Gain Switch, Gain, Sizzle, Volume.

I'm a big fan of Ed Rembold's Toneczar output - and his latest Fuzz - the OTP is another giant in his range. The Mix of extensive tone controls and the Gain Structure Switch really give you the optimal coverage from the least amount of controls. This is essentially another Multi-Muff everyman Fuzz - meaning that you can pretty much dial in any of the key varieties in several different ways.

Controls - Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume, Fuzz, Stage I Clipping - LED/Open/Silicon, Stage II Clipping - Open/Germanium/LED/Silicon, Depth, Pre-Gain (Boost).

Ricardo ’Rikk’ Cabecas' Animalizzer MufferFuzzer is probably the most expansive and versatile of all of these - with so many shaping-controls at your finger-tips. Not only can you get every key variety of Muff out of this box, but all manner of Boost, Overdrive and Distortion flavours. It requires some time-investment to reveal all its strengths - but is well worth the effort - just a fantastic all-round gain box.

Controls - Volume, Tone, Distortion, Tone Bypass Switch, Left Germanium/Silicon selector, Right Germanium/Silicon selector, 5 x Tone Stack Dip-Switches, 15 x Circuit Signal Routing Dip-Switches.

Having been into Chase Bliss Audio for many years, I'm well used to deploying multiple dip-switches - while this takes that concept further than most. It also mixes up sets of Germanium and Silicon Transistors which you can mix and match as you wish. For the earliest days with this pedal's use I actually used it mostly as a Germanium Fuzz Face! The first 15 dip-switches (from the right) control which parts of the circuit you switch in or out - so you can reduce this fuzz down to a simple Germanium Fuzz Face or expand it back up to a full-throttle Triangle Style Silicon Muff. I do feel that there is probably some more efficient control topology to enable similar. While this yields great rewards if you're prepared to spend some time with it!